Lögberg-Heimskringla - 18.12.1981, Blaðsíða 5

WINNIPEG, FÖSTUDAGUR 18. DESEMBER 1981-5
Amma came from Iceland
Continued from page 3
more affluent English speaking
society. Her inability to use the
English language restricted her to
employment with Icelanders and
that narrowed down to being a
housekeeper for an Icelandic farmer
that required such help through lack
of a spouse. Renumeration could at
best only amount to a few dollars
per year with food and shelter for
herself and her child.
Amma was lucky she found her
way into a logging camp North of
Riverton. The men were all Iceland-
ic and she was happy cooking for
them during those winter months as
their appetites were alloyed by her
culinary efforts, having been
brought on by the physical exertion
of axe wielding in this Northern
hinterland of New Iceland.
In the camp were men from the
Riverton area that hád names long
associated with the pioneer
elements of the Icelandic settle-
ment. To me they were only known
through casual conversation by my
mother and have faded from
memory, except for one young man
in the camp that was a close friend
of my parents and who it was my
good fortune to know.
Vigfus Guttormson was a well
known and respected citizen of Oak
Point and Lundar districts. His
friendship with our family became
lifelong, that originated in the logg-
ing camp almost 100 years ago,
when my mother was a child of five
and he a young man. This friend-
ship carried through to members of
both families and it is always a plea-
sant occasion to meet with those
that are descended from this gentel
fine man, who revealed his inner
kindness through skillful poetry,
prose and music, as an organist and
choir master, skills acquired under
difficult adverse circumstances of
our original pioneers.
Other friendships were cemented
in the camp but they did not touch
upon our lives as vividly. The so-
journ of my grandmother with hard-
working Icelanders at the winter
camp could only have been a for-
tunate experience that had a lifelong
gratifying effect.
And so Amma continued her
struggle of which there is no detail,
just a vague knowledge that
somewhere I had a grandmother
who co.rresponded with my mother
occassionally. At some point in her
life she married and had a second
daughter, Inga, that stayed with us
during the summer at Oak Point,
bringing her two children from
whom she died, at a tragically
young age, when her younger child
was still in her infancy. Somewhere
along the line Amma was left alone
to fend for herself. Death had over-
taken her husband.
During her teens my mother
became very concerned about Am-
ma, who had taken on the task of
housekeeping for an Icelandic set-
tler on the Western part of Hecla
Island just South of the present
causeway. In order to reach Amma,
my mother at the age of 15 found
her way to Riverton. There she was
able to borrow a small row boat
with a sail and obtain assistance to
go down the Icelandic River and
cross Grassy Narrows to Hecla
Island. There she found Amma liv-
ing under trying conditions. The
lake level was high and it was
necessary to walk through water
and muck between the house and
barn. The poor farmer was finan-
cially destitute and coiild not pay
the few dollars that Amma had
earned. My mother, ever resource-
ful, bargained and returned to
Riverton with Amma and her per-
sonal belongings, such as they were,
and two bleating sheep.
I reálly'became aware of Amma
and knew her during the final years
of her life. I had reached my late
leens when mother went out to
Saskatchewan, where Amma kept
house for an Icelandic farmer. Her
wages were $10 per month. Once
again she had to come away withoút
all her salary. Farming at that time
was not a lucratic occupation. The
years had caught up with Amma,
her physical condition prevented
her from continuing to stay on the
farm in Saskatchewan. From that
time on she made her home with us
at Oak Point.
While her life had become less
strenuous, a horrendous one last
problem was facing her. The
Federal Government in its wisdom
had implemented the Old Age Pen-
sion Act that entitled those 70 years
of age and over to the princely sum
of $20 per month. There were str-
ings attached, you were required to
be Canadian born or failing that
possess citizenship papers, and fur-
ther a proof of ag,e.
The immediate problem was to
Amma's spinning wheel.
Mother at the age of five years.
This would be her first picture,
portraying the latest fashion in
her newly adopted country of
Canada.
obtain citizenship papers. Amma
had never bothered to take out
papers, after all she had passed mid-
dle age before women had the right
to vote. Furthermore her status was
such that really nobody expected
her to exercise her right of franchise
and she had long accepted her sta-
tion in life of nonentity. She had
never been faced with the need to
become a citizen until the Old Age
Pension Act came into effect.
Here she was 70 years old, with
no knowledge of English, required
to sign a document and appear
before a judge, who would hear her
application in a court of law, that
would determine if she qualified for
citizen status, which included a
knowledge of the English language.
How do you set up a crash course
and tutor a person of Amma's ex-
perience? My father and mother did
their best at what was an ex-
asperating task as the pressure of
struggling with English words had
Amma in an emotional worrying
bind, facing the horrendous ex-
perience of appearing before a
judge, a man of a status that must
have been difficult to comprehend.
On the day of the hearing, I recall
it as a rather cold October noon
when my parents departed for St.
Laurent seventy miles distant in a
Model T Ford touring car that had a
canvas top and flapping side cur-
tains which allowed the cold prairie
winds to circulate freely and chilled
the occupants as they sped down the
road at the horrendous speed of 15
miles per hour. In the back seat sat
Amma alone, while my parents con-
versed in English discussing the
prospects Amma would have in con-
vincing the court that she should
become a citizen of Canada. The
whole exercise was successful, for
the judge was an understanding
compassionate person who under-
stood the traumatic legal experience
Amma had been subjected to. He
granted her the citizenship rights
that she required.
Not all her problems had been
solved, she was required to
establish proof of age and this meant
reaching back into church records
in Iceland. There she was in a quan-
dry, for in her infancy she had been
given over to her Uncle Thordur.
Her status was such that nobody
gave her vital statistics any con-
sideration. She herself had tried to
establish her birthdate but had not
been successful and selected her
confirmation date as her birthday
and used it throughout her life. It is
interesting that she should have
used her confirmation date as a time
to recognize her birth and thereby
keep track of her age. Probably it
was a momentous occasion to be
singled out with others in her age
group to prepare for and be ac-
cepted by the church. It was
recognition, with some attention by
her peers, that was a pleasant
highlight in her life, that was a
struggle of poverty through which
she passed in a lonely sort of way.
In her final years she found in me
a grandson in whom she could con-
fide. She provided me with the
warm items of clothing that I re-
quired, during the winter season
fishing on Lake Manitoba. Her
woolen socks, mitts, sweaters, to-
ques, scarves, wristlets and
underwear protected me well from
the cold windswept lake, all made
from raw wool that she washed,
cleaned, carded, spun on her spinn-
ing wheel and then knitted into
these useful articles of clothing by
five steel knitting needles that gave
a slight metallic sound as they light-
ly clashed in her deft hands.
In our living room sits her well
worn spinning wheel, that although
Canadian made is a-true replica of
Icelandic design. When she left
Iceland her possessions did not in-
clude a spinning wheel but was ac-
quired after coming to Manitoba.
Today her remains are beside her
daughter Inggi in Brookside
Cemetery where we laid her to rest
one half century ago. She was not a
person that made an impact on
society but her integrity, hard work
and humanitarian kindness made
her a no less person. She was one of
the many that immigrated to
Ca'hada a decade before the turn of
the century and reflects the high
human standards of the pioneer
women that came from Iceland
from whom we are descended and
to whom we owe so much.
Her life ended long ago, but her
greatness as a person still has a fond
guiding influence.